What is the greatest threat to the church in our generation?

[timothyu]

Your quote isn't even in the Bible, nicely illustrating my point.

Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven

 

[Hazelelponi]

Each for self may be a western malady but it's not remotely our Chinrse way.



My point that you ignored is that what God's word is or means has very little agreement.

Your quote isn't even in the Bible, nicely illustrating my point.

Perhaps you are confusing
" rather simple" with reductio.ad absurdum.

As a worldview you don't need perfect doctrinal agreement generally speaking.

I have a similar worldview to many of the denominations found in Christianity as a general rule.

We have agreement on basics like what the role of government is, what our role is as Christians to God, government and neighbor.

I don't agree with much the Catholics teach but so far, with a portion of Catholic practitioners, I have very similar objectives when we get together and talk about public policies and world stage concerns.

There is a general worldview shared in much of Christendom that is beyond doctrinal squabbling.

More recently that feel of Christian unity has been disrupted by the rise of progressive ideals inside churches, which is causing a split in what is generally the Christian worldview; splitting between a progressive worldview versus a conservative worldview within the church.

But that's a divide strong enough to prevent common worship even within the same denominations between progressives and conservatives. Hence why denominations are splitting.

But that doesn't stop there being a common worldview. It just means there are now two worldviews that people generally coined as "Christian" might espouse.

The Bible talks about people gathering for themselves religious teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. It's to us as individuals to examine Scripture and determine what position would be the godly position, the one most in line with Scripture properly examined in light of Christ's Holy Spirit.

We aren't anything as a community without first being individually in Christ.

 

[timothyu]

Man divides among man. God says the only division is between the will of man (this world we have made in our image) and the will of God (His kingdom). You may remember how the Jews were confused about this, expecting a worldly messiah.

 

[Astrid]

As a worldview you don't need perfect doctrinal agreement generally speaking.

I have a similar worldview to many of the denominations found in Christianity as a general rule.

We have agreement on basics like what the role of government is, what our role is as Christians to God, government and neighbor.

I don't agree with much the Catholics teach but so far, with a portion of Catholic practitioners, I have very similar objectives when we get together and talk about public policies and world stage concerns.

There is a general worldview shared in much of Christendom that is beyond doctrinal squabbling.

More recently that feel of Christian unity has been disrupted by the rise of progressive ideals inside churches, which is causing a split in what is generally the Christian worldview; splitting between a progressive worldview versus a conservative worldview within the church.

But that's a divide strong enough to prevent common worship even within the same denominations between progressives and conservatives. Hence why denominations are splitting.

But that doesn't stop there being a common worldview. It just means there are now two worldviews that people generally coined as "Christian" might espouse.

The Bible talks about people gathering for themselves religious teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. It's to us as individuals to examine Scripture and determine what position would be the godly position, the one most in line with Scripture properly examined in light of Christ's Holy Spirit.

We aren't anything as a community without first being individually in Christ.

You ignored completely what I said about "each for self",
and that the bible does not quote god saying as claimed

Why is that?

 

[Astrid]

Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven

So?

 

[Astrid]

I totally disagree with this. The way to get more people into your Christian faith is through Love and service to those in need. That's an image of Christ that even non-Christians hold. And that's how those first Christian in Rome won over the people. It was so important to those Romans that those Christian gave all they owned to help and to be of loving service to the poor and those in need.

Not admotting to any midtake ever is for socioaths.

 

[FireDragon76]

As a worldview you don't need perfect doctrinal agreement generally speaking.

I have a similar worldview to many of the denominations found in Christianity as a general rule.

We have agreement on basics like what the role of government is, what our role is as Christians to God, government and neighbor.

I don't agree with much the Catholics teach but so far, with a portion of Catholic practitioners, I have very similar objectives when we get together and talk about public policies and world stage concerns.

There is a general worldview shared in much of Christendom that is beyond doctrinal squabbling.

More recently that feel of Christian unity has been disrupted by the rise of progressive ideals inside churches, which is causing a split in what is generally the Christian worldview; splitting between a progressive worldview versus a conservative worldview within the church.

But that's a divide strong enough to prevent common worship even within the same denominations between progressives and conservatives. Hence why denominations are splitting.

But that doesn't stop there being a common worldview. It just means there are now two worldviews that people generally coined as "Christian" might espouse.

The Bible talks about people gathering for themselves religious teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. It's to us as individuals to examine Scripture and determine what position would be the godly position, the one most in line with Scripture properly examined in light of Christ's Holy Spirit.

Let me offer an alternative perspective.

Fundamentalist Christians criticize "progressive" Christians because the Fundamentalists are staring into the abyss of nihilism. Lashing out at others is a psychological defense mechanism when one is wedded to a worldview that isn't cogent, that lacks what cognitive scientists call the capacity for "relevance realization".

 

[Hazelelponi]

wedded to a worldview that isn't cogent

That isn't cogent?

It's God's argument... Not one we made up because it sounded good at the time.

If you don't understand it perhaps you could try to ask different questions in an effort to understand God.

It's not about us. It's about following God and the way He wants us to follow.

 

[FireDragon76]

That isn't cogent?

It's God's argument... Not one we made up because it sounded good at the time.

Lots of people claim to speak for God, I have noticed. Why should Fundamentalist Christians be taken any more seriously than anybody else? We need better grounds than just naked appeals to presumed authority. We need pathos, logos, and ethos, not name-calling, innuendo, and appeals to fear and demonization, which is increasingly what the Christian Right peddles in.

 

[Astrid]

That isn't cogent?

It's God's argument... Not one we made up because it sounded good at the time.

If you don't understand it perhaps you could try to ask different questions in an effort to understand God.

It's not about us. It's about following God and the way He wants us to follow.

Everyone in every version of every religion says theirs is not made up, it's all the others that are.

 

[FireDragon76]

Everyone in every version of every religion says theirs is not made up, it's all the others that are.

That's why the Christian Right in the US peddles in xenophobia, particularly towards Muslims, atheists, and those of other religions. Any perceived "brand X" is perceived as competing truth claims. They have no way to deal with pluralism, because their worldview is based in acrimonious polemics and an adversarial worldview. Cosmopolitanism is a foreign concept them.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Lots of people claim to speak for God, I have noticed.

While others either claim to speak for Him or claim to know more than anyone else on the planet who has historically made that claim. In 2000 years of history it's quite the feat of intellect to say you know more than any of them.

Especially when standing in the midst of a system that was created via that 2000 years of growing in the understanding of God - that has provided you with freedom and liberty and safety.

Not perfectly, but it's going in the right direction if you don't decide to kill it dead.

Might be better to learn how to live as neighbors just as we are trying to do and actually live out some of that love of your fellow Christians right next door to you.

 

[FireDragon76]

While others either claim to speak for Him or claim to know more than anyone else on the planet who has historically made that claim. In 2000 years of history it's quite the feat of intellect to say you know more than any of them.

It's a tradition that's far older than 2,000 years, or are you discounting the testimony of the Hebrew Prophets?

American Fundamentalist Evangelicals are not the sole heirs of the Christian theological tradition. Not even close.

Not perfectly, but it's going in the right direction if you don't decide to kill it dead.

Might be better to learn how to live as neighbors just as we are trying to do and actually live out some of that love of your fellow Christians right next door to you.

I don't even understand what your point is here. It sounds like more religious gaslighting.

 

[Astrid]

While others either claim to speak for Him or claim to know more than anyone else on the planet who has historically made that claim. In 2000 years of history it's quite the feat of intellect to say you know more than any of them.

Especially when standing in the midst of a system that was created via that 2000 years of growing in the understanding of God - that has provided you with freedom and liberty and safety.

Not perfectly, but it's going in the right direction if you don't decide to kill it dead.

Might be better to learn how to live as neighbors just as we are trying to do and actually live out some of that love of your fellow Christians right next door to you.

While others either claim to speak for Him or claim to know more than anyone else on the planet who has historically made that claim. In 2000 years of history it's quite the feat of intellect to say you know more than any of them.

Especially when standing in the midst of a system that was created via that 2000 years of growing in the understanding of God - that has provided you with freedom and liberty and safety.

Not perfectly, but it's going in the right direction if you don't decide to kill it dead.

Might be better to learn how to live as neighbors just as we are trying to do and actually live out some of that love of your fellow Christians right next door to you.

Is it not “taking the name of thy God in vain” about vanity?

As in assuming to oneself the infallible power God to speak Truth?

We see with no pleasure that the same ones who “ know” the end is near
also claim to know for a Gods given unto them fact that such matters as
deep time and evolution are false.

Such vast arrogance, pretending to know more than any researcher on earth!

 

[RoBo1988]

Apathy. As Talking Heads' sang: "same as it ever was"

 

[tampasteve]

ADMIN HAT ON

I am shutting this thread down. Come on people, we don't need a thread to bash one another, which is what this has become. Be better than that.

ADMIN HAT OFF